Nadal is a four-time champion in Rome and has been a consistent force at the tournament since 2005. His only blip came two years ago when he suffered an early loss to Juan Carlos Ferrero, albeit while struggling with a foot injury at the time.

Kohlschreiber is in very good form at the moment having demolished Andy Murray two weeks ago in Monte-Carlo during a run to the quarter-finals.

However he will have to play the match of his life to defeat Nadal who was in blistering form when he won the Monte-Carlo title, dropping barely a handful of games against world class opponents.

Kohlschreiber always gives Nadal a competitive match, particularly on hard courts but he has still lost all six of their encounters, the most recent, a four set defeat at the Australian Open.

Nevertheless, Nadal should come into his third round match, feeling confident with a 5-0 record against Kohlschreiber. Three of the Spaniard’s victories over Kohlschreiber have come on clay, where Nadal seems to be bulletproof. However on hard surface, the German has managed to give the 6-time Grand Slam champion a little bit of a hard time.

“On hard court there’s a lot of very good players and think being number two of the world, probably I am not the favorite but I am one of these ones, you know,” Nadal said. “Finally, the important thing is who plays better on court. We will see what happens.”